Ariz . Sen. John McCain’s ad, called “Celeb,” questions Ill. Sen. Barack Obama’s preparedness to lead the nation, calling him the “biggest celebrity in the world” and showing footage of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, as well as footage of Obama’s well-attended July 24 speech in Berlin.

A McCain spokesperson told the press that the Republican candidate’s team researched the most popular celebrities in the world and named Barack Obama, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton as the top three based on their findings.

Responding to the ad, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor quipped, “On a day when major news organizations across the country are taking Sen. McCain to task for a steady stream of false, negative attacks, his campaign has launched yet another. Or, as some might say, ‘Oops! He did it again.’”

The McCain campaign has suggested that the ad—as well as other remarks about Obama’s media attention—should be seen as humorous rather than negative.

The Obama campaign employed several journalists’ remarks in its July 30 counter-ad, which focused on McCain’s “same old politics” and made counterstatements about the Republican’s economic platform.

Some have hailed this as the beginning of a character-based ad season, where more focus will be spent on the candidates’ biographies and demeanors than their stance on the issues but, if so, it certainly will not be the first time in presidential campaign history.

McCain adviser Rick Davis defended the ad’s rationale to the press during a conference call July 30, the day the ad was released. “The focus on media, on events and activities, is much more something you’d expect from someone releasing a new movie.” The McCain campaign has been jokingly criticizing the media’s “fascination” with Obama since his trip to Europe in the Middle East last week, and Davis contends that the celebrity ad is supposed to be funny, rather than negative, CNN writes.

Perhaps one of the most famous television campaign ads came from President Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 campaign. A young girl picks petals off a daisy, her voice overlaid with a man counting down to the explosion of an atomic bomb, followed by a speech by Johnson emphasizing the importance of keeping America safe.

In a more playful approach to 1952 campaign, Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson used music to attract voters, with a female singer performing an original campaign rally song set to the seasonally appropriate music of “O Christmas Tree.” It included the lyrics, “From Illinois whence Lincoln came, his leadership has won him fame.”

Presidential candidates have used opponents’ gaffes to their advantage by creating campaign ads out of them. Republican candidate George Bush used this tactic against Michael Dukakis in 1988 in the infamous “Dukakis in the Tank” ad, criticizing the Democratic candidate’s military experience by showing awkward-looking footage of Dukakis riding in a military tank. FindingDulcinea spotlighted other memorable presidential campaign gaffes in a May feature.

The Obama campaign’s response to the “Celeb” ad, referencing McCain’s “same old politics,” could be taken as a reference to McCain’s age. He is a full generation older than Obama at 71, and has often been accused by Obama campaign of practicing a bygone style of politics. “[T]here’s a concern about whether an older president will have old ideas,” Andrew Korhut, president of the Pew Research Center, told the BBC recently. The BBC notes that age didn’t hurt former President Reagan in the 1984 campaign, but did not help Bob Dole, who suffered from a stumble that became fodder for the media in during his 1996 campaign. Both Dole and Reagan were 73 when they ran.

Daniel Larison in Eunomia, his blog for The American Conservative, dismisses the idea that the “Celeb” ad brought race into the equation, but concludes from the events of July 30, “One thing seems likely … the election will turn heavily on the biography and character of the candidates, and it will therefore be one of the more divisive and unpleasant general election campaigns we have experienced.”

On MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” Craig Crawford of CQPolitics.com said, “The strategy here appears to be: go after Obama’s greatest strength, which is his celebrityhood, or popularity. … McCain advisers some weeks ago told me, ‘We’re going to have to puncture [Obama’s] balloon before he floats out of our hands,” and this is part of that effort.”

For more campaign advertisements, “The Living Room Candidate” exhibit on the Museum of the Moving Image Web site compiles presidential campaign ads from the advent of television in 1952 up to 2008. Search by type of commercial, issue, or campaign year.